DRAFT PRESS RELEASE                                                                     24 February 2005

 

CITY LAUNCHES OPERATION VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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The City of Cape Town has just launched the latest phase in its traffic management system, Operation Voluntary Compliance, which encourages the public to become compliant in terms of their traffic fines, summonses and warrants of arrest.

 

After an exhaustive tender process to find a service provider for a comprehensive IT based traffic fine processing and collection service, the City of Cape Town acquired the services of a service provider in June 2004.  The underlying principle was to have a single, integrated and uniform traffic contravention processing system.

 

In the past there were seven administrations with separate and disparate systems.  It was therefore also part of the process to refine and centralise databases of outstanding traffic offences.  The aim was to streamline the process of payment of traffic fines and to make it easier for the public to settle their outstanding fines.

 

The city now has more cameras and a single back office which is streamlining and consolidating the three systems there used to be into one.

 

Considerable progress has been made since June 2004.  There are a number of new cameras in fixed positions.  There are also six new hi tech digicam speed cameras throughout the city.  These are mainly for speeding offences.

 

 Unlike in the past, motorists can now pay their fines at any traffic department in the city.

In addition, the City of Cape Town is negotiating further measures to make payment even easier. 529 848 traffic offences have been loaded onto First National Bank’s ATM computers to enable FNB card holders to view and pay their recent fines by means of their credit or bank cards, thus making it possible to split payment over as many months as their bank allows.

 

Existing traffic fines that have progressed to the stage of warrants of arrest or summonses, however, cannot be dealt with via ATM payment as they have unfortunately been ignored for too long and progressed too far.

 

The City of Cape Town is involved in ongoing negotiations with other banks,  Easy Pay, Shoprite Checkers and other chain stores to make payment of fines easier for the public.

 

According to Councillor David Erleigh, the City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, one of the fundamental principles of the city, being a caring city, is to make avenues available for people to become compliant in terms of their outstanding traffic fines.

 

He said, “Operation Voluntary Compliance is an initiative to encourage the public to settle outstanding fines and become law abiding citizens.  During the festive

season, the City of Cape Town adopted a very lenient approach but now city fathers are urging offenders to come to the party and pay the city what it is due.”

 

The improved traffic management process started with the very successful Operation Reclaim which involves the Star Ranger, a mobile camera that captures number plates, feeds the information back to the central database and immediately identifies vehicles with outstanding offences. Operation Reclaim

CITY LAUNCHES OPERATION VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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which started off with one Star Ranger, now has three Star Rangers and now complements Operation Voluntary Compliance.

Fines and summonses can be paid at any traffic department in the city and current FNB cardholder fines can be paid at FNB ATMs.

 

Councillor Erleigh added, “The City of Cape Town would like citizens to be voluntarily compliant and are loath to adopt a heavy handed approach. To this end, they intend making people aware of their status, be it fines, summonses or warrants of arrest, by means of a call centre.”

 

Those wishing to enquire regarding their status in terms of traffic fines can contact (021) 406 8740, 406 8741, 406 8749 or 406 8832

 

ENDS

 

Issued by                    Rosemary Hare Public Relations cc

                                    P O Box 12521

                                    MILL STREET

                                    8010

 

On behalf of               The City of Cape Town

                                     Private Bag X9181

                                    CAPE TOWN

                                    8000

 

For further information, please contact Lisa Hayward at Rosemary Hare Public Relations on (021) 531-2166 or 082 5793793.

 

All news releases produced by Rosemary Hare Public Relations are available on the website www.rosehare.co.za